For more than a century, bicycles have been equipped with fixed pedals at the end of two cranks placed at 180 degrees to one another on each side of a frame or a wheel. The cyclist transfers his energy to the bicycle by means of the pedals. Many forms of pedals have been proposed over the years.
At the start of the twentieth century and to improve their performance, cyclists and above all competition cyclists, found it useful to attach the shoe to the pedal by means of various systems, such as, for example, toe-clips equipped with straps. In the mid-1980s, the company LOOK introduced a revolutionary pedal: the clipless pedal.
The clipless pedal makes it possible to easily attach the shoe to the pedal by simply pressing on the pedal. To disengage (remove the shoe), it is sufficient to pivot and force the heel to the outside. Since the shoes of the cyclist are no longer attached permanently to the pedals, the foot can release itself during a fall; at the time this was considered the primary advantage of the clipless pedal. This is the reason why the clipless pedal is also called a safety pedal.